BBC Horizon: Why Do We Dream?

Horizon uncovers the secret world of our dreams. In a series of cutting-edge experiments and personal stories, we go in search of the science behind this most enduring mystery and ask: where do dreams come from? Do they have meaning? And ultimately, why do we dream?

What the film reveals is that much of what we thought we knew no longer stands true. Dreams are not simply wild imaginings but play a significant part in all our lives as they have an impact on our memories, the ability to learn, and our mental health. Most surprisingly, we find nightmares, too, are beneficial and may even explain the survival of our species.

After seeing the whole thing it was actually quite interesting and is definitely worth it to watch all the way through. I especially liked the differences people observed between REM and nREM sleep. There a few things in there which were sort of "duh, I knew that" but it was still quite interesting anyway.

TL;DW: For those of you who just want a summary it basically says that dreams are our brains' way of sorting through memories, reinforcing those which are important to us, and giving us more experience for when we encounter them again (Déjà vu, anyone?).

“When you call yourself an Indian or a Muslim or a Christian or a European, or anything else, you are being violent. Do you see why it is violent? Because you are separating yourself from the rest of mankind. When you separate yourself by belief, by nationality, by tradition, it breeds violence. So a man who is seeking to understand violence does not belong to any country, to any religion, to any political party or partial system; he is concerned with the total understanding of mankind.”